GOTG Profile: Jessica Kriegel and In The Sac

Jessica Kriegel, CEO and co-founder of the In the Sac App (amongst other things)

By Laura Braden

Every now and then you meet someone who makes you happy and proud to live in Sacramento. My latest lady crush is Jessica Kriegel.

A fellow transplant, Jessica moved to Sacramento in 2008. By day, she serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Planning for the Oracle Cloud group. She gets to WORK FROM HOME in downtown Sacramento, and her boss is the head of Oracle Cloud, reporting directly into the CEO. He’s a new hire to Oracle, and his mission is to help Oracle dominate in the Cloud market. Jessica manages strategic planning to that end.

And by night, she’s all things Sacramento. She serves on the board of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera and the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Alumni Association. She was a Professor at Drexel University, class V graduate from the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program and a current member of Leadership Sacramento (LS15).

So yeah, a total underachiever. 😉

She and I met at some long-forgotten reception, and I liked her immediately. We both talk a million miles a minute, hopping to and from topics, “politely” interrupting each other the entire time because we simply have too much to share.

She’s clever, kind, thoughtful and FUN so when I heard she was launching an app that promotes Sacramento, I knew our GOTG readers needed the 411.

Her latest project is called “In the Sac” (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) – an app she developed with Co-Founder/COO Eric McIntosh to help tourists find the best spots and residents explore new parts of the city.

Check out the video below, and GOTG’s interview…

Q: What (initially) gave you the idea for the app?

Last year I begrudgingly went on a trip to Indianapolis for work. I wasn’t looking forward to it until a friend of mine sent me a two page email, listing all the places I should visit (walks I should take, events I should attend, etc.) I followed his instructions and fell in love with the city. If it wasn’t for that email, I would’ve eaten dinner at the hotel restaurant, walked a few blocks around my hotel and left. I instantly thought that we needed something like this for Sacramento.

Q: Why do you think this app is needed? What void are you hoping to fill?

Eric and I think Sacramento is an amazing city, but it/s not immediately obvious to tourists (and some locals). I think that’s why we still have a reputation for being a less desirable vacation destination. The purpose of the app is to highlight the best Sacramento has to offer so that visitors and locals will fall in love with this city the way I have. That includes hidden gems, hot spots, and events.

This is a passion of mine because when I moved here in August 2008, I was so unimpressed with Sacramento. I have lived in Malibu, New York City, London, Milan and Boston. I thought Sacramento was a cow town when I arrived and was sour about moving here. I didn’t fall in love with the city until the Here We Stay campaign. I remember walking down the street on a day we were all supposed to wear purple. I was wearing a purple top and I saw a man walking towards me wearing a purple tie. Without exchanging a word, as we passed each other, we high-fived. That sealed it for me. This city has community, we have passion and we are the greatest city in America. The purpose of the app is to make it obvious to everyone.

The app has two sections:

1) Events in Sacramento (powered by Sac365)

2) Curated virtual tours of Sacramento based on locals’ recommendations in the following three areas:

Happy Hour in the Sac

Farm-to-Fork in the Sac

Art in the Sac

Q: Who’s your target audience(s)?

Target audience is three-fold:

Visitors to Sacramento (tourist and business travelers).

Locals that live in the suburbs (Elk Grove, Roseville, etc) that need a little help discovering downtown).

Locals that love Sacramento already and want to keep exploring/be a part of the movement.

Q: What’s the timeline, next steps?

We are currently collecting data from locals on our website at www.inthesacapp.com. All of the recommendations featured on the app are coming from local Sacramentans that vote. In other words, it’s not just me and Eric picking our favorite hot spots. This needs to be representative of locals’ opinions. The app is currently under development with our fantastic app development team at Rocket Department. We expect to launch in the summer of 2015.

Q: How can people help/get involved?

We don’t want to sell out. We want this to be an authentic representation of what locals love. That means we’re not selling advertising and we’re not selling featured space on the app. As a result, we need Sacramento to help get involved in the funding.

We have a Kickstarter featured here, and the campaign ends on Friday, May 15.

Please help us pay our awesome app developers without selling out! Support our campaign for in the Sac! This app is of Sacramento, by Sacramento, and in Sacramento. Be a part of the movement!

Q: Three words that describe Sacramento’s grid?

Vibrant, authentic, unstoppable

Q: What’s your favorite brunch spot? Happy hour spot?

Hook and Ladder (1630 P Street) for brunch. Excellent food and no 45 minute wait for a table. House (555 Capitol Mall) for happy hour – the raspberry ice pick is to die for.

1 Comment

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this app – a great way to capture and share all of the unique, exciting things the Grid has to offer! And I agree that House is the best HH spot. House Slippers…mmmmm.